Leaning on Our Camp Alumni
Camp Alumni (we define as both former campers and staff) are the ones who get it done. They send their kids to our camp; they volunteer on our boards; they help sustain our future through philanthropy; and they call it like they see it because they want camp to be the best it can be.
Like many of you, we cannot find the magic formula to keep all of our alumni engaged or even find them after years of being away. Instead of becoming deflated, we got serious and mapped out a vision and created a few goals to help build a successful and sustainable alumni program. Here is a quick overview of our path.
Vision of the Alumni ProgramTo celebrate Camp’s legacy through historical preservation and deepen alumni’s involvement by creating meaningful engagement opportunities. Goals
- Connect alumni to Camp and to fellow constituents
- Create strategic initiatives where alumni experience long-term value or benefit
- Build a dynamic yet sustainable program that will support future growth
An alumni committee helped us move through much of this work. We were intentional to ask alumni who are or have served in an Alumni Director position with their college or university to identify best practices and engagement trends.
Here are a few overall initiatives to highlight:
- A Speaker Series where alumni come and talk to summer staff (on Zoom now) about the value of working at camp and about paths to pursue for their professional career.
- A Young Alumni Committee (40 and under) who are finding their friends all over the country and reengaging them through annual giving.
- Camp Doctors who volunteer their services in the summer, and most recently, as members of our COVID Medical Task Force.
Let us lean on our people…our camp alumni.
Sallie Ransom
VP of Camping Services
YMCA of the Triangle (Sea Gull, Seafarer and Kanata)
